The present invention relates generally to breakaway closure devices, such as, for example breakaway closures for lanyards or other straps.
A lanyard is a small cord or rope typically used in securing or suspending a small object around a person""s neck. The use of webbing, ribbon and cordage based lanyards are known and have increased in use and become more widespread over the years. The most common use of these known lanyards is for suspending identification tags or badges, or displaying various documents, often in places that require controlled access.
These known lanyards, however, have presented certain safety issues for manufacturers of such products. The common form of the lanyard, especially those intended for use around a person""s neck, poses a potential risk to the wearer. Should the lanyard become entangled or pulled on in any way, a choking hazard will exist for the wearer.
In an effort to overcome this known problem, lanyard manufacturers have developed lanyards with a breakaway feature, or similar means of allowing the cordage member of the lanyard to separate at a predetermined tension level. Many techniques for permitting the lanyard to separate at a predetermined tension level are known. These include, for example, using hook and loop type fastening (e.g., Velcro(trademark)), separable metal clips, and a variety of injection molded plastic, multi-component xe2x80x9cplug and socketxe2x80x9d parts. There are however several disadvantages and problems with the known lanyard breakaway techniques. As an example, many of the known techniques require several different components, resulting in higher complexity of the product and increased difficulty in the use of the product. In addition, many of the known breakaway techniques are unreliable, have a high initial purchase cost, and an overall high cost application.
The present invention is directed at overcoming these and other known problems and disadvantages with existing lanyard breakaway techniques while still providing the desired separation of the lanyard cord.
The present invention includes the use of a hermaphroditic clips, that when used in a pair and attached to the cord of the lanyard will mate with themselves to create a breakaway lanyard cord. Stated another way and more specifically, the present invention includes the use of two substantially identical clips attached to the ends of the lanyard cord, with each clip having both a male projection and a female aperture. Once attached to the ends of the lanyard cord, these identical clips will snap together and form a releasable pair of clips and consequently a breakaway lanyard cord that will separate at a predetermined tension level. Significantly, each clip is easily attached by hand to the lanyard cord and the installation of each clip does not require the use of special tools.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon review of the following detailed description, claims and drawings in which like numerals are used to designate like features.